1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and techniques for administering the credentials of those individuals who are authorized, for example, to receive or benefit from a product or service, to enter an area of restricted access, to be present at an event or performance, or to collect governmental benefit, so that individuals bearing such credentials may be easily, accurately and consistently distinguished from individuals who are not so authorized.
2. Discussion of the Background Art
There are many situations where it is necessary to distinguish between those individuals with and without authorization to perform a particular act. Representative examples of such acts include entering into a restricted-access building or area of a building, attending a sporting event or performance, and receiving or collecting a governmental benefit (or, for that matter, state-run lottery winnings). The complexity associated with conferring authority upon select individuals or groups of individuals correlates closely with the population of individuals included in the group(s), the degree to which that population is static or dynamic, the number of groups (if applicable) within the population, and the need to accommodate variations in authority among those groups. For example, in building security situations where the number of individuals to be recognized is relatively small, the turnover among them is low, and the security workforce stable, it is generally possible to rely solely on recognition of each individual based on their physical appearance (i.e., “by sight”). Where the number of individuals having authority to enter secure areas and/or facilities is too large or is subject to a higher rate of turnover, or where the security staff itself is subject to turnover, however, it is not feasible to rely upon recognizing individuals by sight alone.
It has therefore become commonplace to distribute wearable badges or wallet-sized identification cards and to uniquely associate each such badge or ID card with the individual wearing or carrying it. A typical badge or ID card, for example, may include a photograph, a signature, a fingerprint, an RFID tag, and usually some combination of these. Specially designed doors equipped to admit only one person at a time and only upon recognition of an appropriate code (whether by keypad entry, passive RFID detection, biometric scanning, etc.) are also commonplace.
While the aforementioned identification systems are now ubiquitous in the workplace, there are certain limitations which make them undesirable for certain situations such, for example, as where a higher degree of protection against counterfeiting is required or as where one or more groups of individuals have only a transient need to enter a specific building, facility, or area thereof. The need to safeguard against counterfeiting, of course, arises from the widespread availability of image scanners, color printers, and field-programmable RFID tags. While the need to prevent unauthorized duplication or counterfeiting of credentials is particularly acute when it comes to law enforcement and investigative personnel, additional safeguards would also be applicable to cards used to establish eligibility to receive government benefits (e.g., social security identification cards), to board an airplane as a passenger (e.g., a boarding pass), and even to collect lottery winnings
As for transient or frequently changing access requirements, consider the examples of traveling sports teams and performers. A professional football team may play eighteen games, with half of these being at a local or “home” stadium and the other half of the games being “away games” played at the home stadium of an adversary. A professional baseball team may play almost ten times as many games as a football team, but with a similar distribution of local and away games. In each of these cases, there are team members, supporting staff and other employees that all require a way of documenting their authority to enter a stadium on the day of an event (whether it be a practice session, a pre-season game, a regular season game, or a post season game). A musician or band may play at a large number of venues during a single tour, while a movie or television show may require filming at a number of different locations, with a concert or filming session at each discrete location also constituting an “event”.
In the aforementioned transient access situations, it has been customary to issue individuals who are authorized to be present at an event—whether they are attending as a member of the audience or in a supporting capacity—a discrete, temporary printed admission pass good only for the day of the event, after which it is to be discarded and cannot be used for admission to a subsequent event. These printed passes are expensive to produce, and each must be distributed to every authorized individual at some point prior to the applicable event(s). As the number of individuals with a need or desire to be present at multiple events grows, the cost and inefficiency of the approach quickly becomes apparent. While it would be possible to print and distribute a multiple use pass, the risk of unauthorized duplication and/or use, already quite high, increases dramatically.
In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/196,342 , the inventor herein proposed a credential management system which obviates the need to design, produce and distribute one-time printed passes to individuals authorized to be present at an event such, for example, as cast members, stage crew, security details and staff, important guests, performers, players, officials and many others.
A continuing need exists for credential management systems which minimize the risks of unauthorized use or duplication of distributed credentials, passes, badges and tickets.
A further need exists for credential management systems having an optional location tracking capability whereby the whereabouts of each person to whom a credential is issued can be remotely monitored during an event.
Yet another need exists for credential management systems which can be centrally administered to accommodate levels of authorization among individuals in a single group, among individuals in plural groups associated with a single entity (e.g. a corporate client or government organization), and even among respective groups and individuals associated with a plurality of such entities.